Senate Subcommittee Approves $1.1 Billion Increase for NIH in Draft FY 2009 Funding Bill

June 25, 2008 – The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies has approved its version of the fiscal year (FY) 2009 funding bill for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies.

The draft bill approved by the Senate Subcommittee includes a nearly $1.1 billion increase for NIH above the current year's funding level that will, according to Subcommittee Chairman Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), "allow the NIH to award the highest number of new research project grants in its history and keep up with the biomedical inflation rate for the first time in six years."

Though increasing NIH funding above both the current FY 2008 level and the President's FY 2009 budget request of $29.3 billion for NIH, the Senate bill falls just short of the $1.2 billion increase provided in the draft bill approved by the House Appropriations Subcommittee last week.

A distribution breakdown of funding for individual Institutes and Centers is not available at this time. More details will become available when the full House and Senate Appropriations Committees are each tentatively scheduled to consider and give final approval to their respective NIH funding bills on June 26. A schedule for consideration of either bill by the full House or Senate has not yet been established.

ASH is continuing its advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill throughout the FY 2009 appropriations debate and encourages all members to take action to continue the momentum in support of increasing funding for NIH.